Purification of Benzoic Acid by Sublimation and Melting Point Determination

T.H. Tsai, R.F Vila, K.Y.* Visco, R.G. Vivar, J.C. Zafra, J.C. Ziganay Abstract: Sublimation is the process by which a substance undergoes conversion from the solid phase to the gas phase, without going through the intermediate liquid phase. This experiment aims to purify benzoic acid through sublimation, compute for its percentage recovery and compare its purified substance with a standard to determine its melting point. The impure benzoic acid is heated in an evaporating dish covered with inverted watch glass and after some time, the sublimate is collected for percentage recovery computation and also packed in a capillary tube for its melting point determination. A result of 7.88% of percentage recovery was achieved from the sublimation process and a result of 130C was obtained in the melting point determination indicating that the pure substance (standard) and the sublimate are the same.

Introduction: Sublimation is the process by which a substance undergoes conversion from the solid phase to the gas phase, without going through the liquid phase. In this phenomenon, the transition from the solid to the gaseous state requires an intermediate liquid state [1]. A number of solids can simply change into vapors; these vapors can sublime, meaning that vapors form a solid without going through the liquid state. A good example that can undergo sublimation is ice when pressure is reduced, 1/100th of the usual atmospheric pressure. Sublimation is helpful in purifying some solids like menthol, naphthalene, iodine, etc. [2]. Sublimation is a technique used by chemists to purify compounds. Under this reduced pressure, the solid volatilizes and condenses as a purified compound on a cooled surface. Once heating ceases, the purified compound may be collected from the cooling surface which has a non-volatile residue

of impurities behind [1]. Benzoic acid was first obtained by sublimation from gum benzoin. This is also known as flowers of benzoin [3]. Benzoic acid in its basic form is called impure benzoic acid. The impurities that are in the newly formed benzene are because of phenyl and benzyl compounds that seriously affect the product. The impurities contain amino compounds that are present in a larger extent inside impure benzene [4]. A pure benzoic acid can be obtained from recrystallization and sublimation but in this test, well focus on sublimation. The melting point of a substance is the temperature at which its solid and liquid phases coexist in equilibrium. The normal melting point of a substance is its melting point at one atmosphere pressure. Changes in pressure have very small effects on melting points, but they have large effects on boiling points [5].

The experiment aims to purify benzoic acid by sublimation, to determine and compare the melting point of the product with a standard and to calculate its percentage recovery that is obtained. Methodology:

Figure 3.2 Melting point set-up

Figure 3.1 Sublimation set-up

Five grams of impure benzoic acid is weighed in an evaporating dish. The evaporating dish is covered with a perforated filter paper. An inverted preweighed watch glass is placed on the top of filter paper and heated by a hot plate. Figure 3.1 is given to serve as guide. The watch glass is cooled with a tissue paper placed on the top of watch glass that is kept moist with water. The sample is heated for 10-15 minutes until the sample has vaporized. When the set-up is cooled, it is said that the preweighed glass must be inverted. The sublimate is collected and weighed in the watch glass. For melting point determination, the sublimate was ground into a fine powder and a capillary tube is pressed into the powder. The closed end of the capillary tube is dropped several times through a glass tubing until it is well-packed with approximately 1mm of the sublimate. The capillary tube is attached to a thermometer with a piece of rubber

band together with the standard pure benzoic acid that is also packed in a capillary tube. Refer to the Figure 3.2 on the set-up for the melting point determination. Results: The results in the experiments are given here:

This means that when 5g of benzoic acid is subjected to the process sublimation, 0.3938g of sublimate will be obtained and its percentage recovery shows that 7.88% of the pure substance is produced from the starting material. The melting point determination dictated that the sublimate obtained is a pure substance having the same melting point with the standard pure benzoic acid which is 130C. References:

Percentage recovery:

weight of sublimateweight of impure benzoic acid100% 0.3938g5g100%=7.88%

1.Sublimation (chemistry). New World Encyclopedia. 24 Feb. 2007. <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ entry/Sublimation_%28chemistry%29> 2.Sublimation. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/6779999/07 -Sublimation> 3. Benzene. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 23 Jul. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene> 4.What Is Impure Benzoic Acid? Mike Charmaine. eHow Health. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6629946_i mpure-benzoic-acid_.html> 5. Whitten, Davis, Peck and Stanley. Chemistry, Ninth Edition. Canada, 2010. p.468.

Melting point of benzoic acid

Discussions: In the experiment performed, the sublimate is formed at the cooling surface (inverted face) of the watch glass after heating for about 10-15 minutes. The sublimate weighed about 0.3938g and a percentage recovery of 7.88% was obtained from the ratio of the weight of the sublimate and the weight of the impure benzoic acid then multiplying it by 100%. The melting point of the sublimate as well as the pure benzoic acid that has been obtained based on the experiment is 130C.